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THE COMPENSATED AGENCY 



3(5ir 



U. S. SANITAHY COMMISSION 



EXPLASMED AND DEFENDED. 



Kev. Wm. W. Patton, D. D. 



CKIC^G-O, ILL. 
DUNT.OP, SEWELL * SPAT.DTXG, PRINTERS. 

18 6 4- 






Weet. Bee. Hist. 8de. 



THE COMPENSATED AGENCY. 



Why does not the Sanitary Commission employ a volunteer, unpaid 
agency ? Why does it ])ursue the system of compensating those who 
carry on its operations V Is this not a needless expense, diminishing 
that much the charities of the patriotic V Is there not benevolence 
enough in the nation to ])rovide, if need be, an army of Sanitary labor- 
ers to work gratuitously for our brave and patient soldiers V Are there 
not thousands who would delight to engage in such labors of love for a 
few weeks at a time, relieving each other by a constant succession V 
And would not such a plan ensure moi'e sympathy between the people 
and the army, and also between the people and the Sanitary Conunis- 
sion ? 

These questions are often asked in all sincerity and good faith, and 
properly demand an answer. Indeed, were no answer given when such 
inquiries become general, the silence might be interpreted as inability to 
justify the operations of the Commission, and as a reason why the priblic 
shoukl seek another channel of communication with the army. 

For the information of the patriotic public, then, let it be known first 
of all, that the Sanitary Commission uses volunteer and vmpaid labor to 
the full extent of its availability. Its supply department is managed 
almost wholly on this principle. By the supply department is here 
intended the arrangement for obtaining supplies from the people. Very 
lew paid soliciting agents have been employed to make appeals to them ; 
fewer than the cause demanded, and fewer than have been employed by 
other bodies. The treasury and storehouses of the Sanitary Commission 
have suffered from the undue economy practiced in agencies, advertising, 
printing, and other costly measures commonly resorted to, to keep a 
cause before the public. It has trusted almost entirely to the spontii- 
neous liberality of the loyal people. The various branch commissions 
are operated gratuitouslj'' b}^ business and professional gentlemen, at a 
mere nominal expense for rent, clerk hire and the like ; and yet through 
them, by unpaid agencies and labors, have come the )>ulk of the stores 
distributed in the army. 

Moreover, in the work of distribution resort is had to gratuitous 
volunteer aid, where the case admits of it. Thus it has been customary, 
after bloody engagements, to forward to the army large companies of 
volunteer surgeons and nurses for temporary service till the emergency 



had passed. Syme noble mea have also given their services ibr ;i pro- 
tracted term. There is no disposition to discard gratuitous labor where 
it can be made eflficient. 

But it must next be remarked, that in the larger portion of the 
operations of the Sanitary Commission it is clearly impossible to employ 
a gratuitous agency. The work is such as to demand permanent paid 
laborers in order to be done at all. And here it is necessary to correct 
the common misapprehension, that the distribution of hospital supplies 
is the whole or principal work of the Sanitary Commission. It con.sti- 
tutes but one of several departments. There, for instance, is the Back 
Pay and Pension Department, for assisting discharged soldiers or their 
friends to obtain their claims upon the government ; with reference to 
which the idea of using a mere gratuitous, volunteer agency is as absurd 
as to expect to carry on the Treasury Department of the Government in 
like manner. The business must be done with care, method and intelli- 
gence, and with a sense of responsibility also, which result only from 
long experience and oflBcial training. There is the Hospital Directory 
Department, recording the names of all soldiers who enter the army 
hospitals, with their transfers from point to point, and their death or 
discharge. To this department appHcation is made by thousands 
monthly to discover the life, death or condition of those from whom they 
have heard nothing. It requires a numerous and careful set of agents to 
obtain the hospital returns, keep the corresponding books, and answer 
inquiries orally or by letter. And these agents cannot be changed everj' 
few weeks, without defeating the whole object. Their experience is 
worth more than gold. They must be retained permanently, and there- 
fore receive a salary for support. There is the Department of Army 
Inspection, employing a large number of able physicians, who spend 
their entire time in going from camp to camp throughout the seat of war, 
inspecting the condition of the men and the situation of the camps, 
inquiring into diet, clothing personal habits, and the regimen of the 
army in respect to hygiene, making suggestions to officers and men, and 
obtaining numei'ous and minute statistics for futm*e publication. These 
latter (some of which have recently been submitted to scientific bodies 
in Europe, and ehcited great surprise and commendation), are of the 
utmost value and could not be obtained and recorded by any but profes- 
sional and experienced persons, who must be employed for long periods 
and be paid for their services. Take, again, the Relief Department, with 
its Hospital Cars and its numerous Soldiers' Homes scattered through 
the land at all the principal points reached by the soldiers on their way 
to or from the army, where the hungry are fed, the naked are clothed, 
and the houseless are sheltered and lodged ; and how is it possible to 
cntimst .their management to volunteer, gTatuitous agents, changing everj^ 
month or six weeks ? As well undertake to conduct a city hotel on that 
pnnciple. Then there is the work of publishing and circulating the 
series of documents issued by the Sanitary Commission, many of them 
of a medioal nature, giving the latest results of medical science and 



surgiral art wit]i reference to ('ainp diseases and injuries received in 
battle. These must be prepared with care by competent men at the head 
of their profession, and must be published and widely distributed with 
imgrudging outlay. Consider, then, the Distribution of Supplies. There 
must surely be permanent agents at almost every military post, to receive 
and handle the goods at the storehouses, to see to arrangements with 
railroads, steamboats, quartermasters and teamsters, to keep account of 
stock, and make delivery to the distributing agencies in the field, and to 
make stated reports to the Commission. But few men have the business 
knowledge and tact to fill these places ; and to obtain and retain them, 
they must have proper compensation. iVo agency for aiding the army 
pretends to employ gratuitous labor in tMs vart of tlie worlc,. But yet, 
again, over the multitude of distributors of supplies there must be per- 
manent superintendents to direct them where to labor, to instruct them 
in the details of their work, and to be responsible to the Central Commis- 
sion for the proper organization and efficiency of the force sent to the 
field. These must be wise, capable, experienced men, permanently 
engaged in the causa, and of course supported by the funds of the Com- 
mission. And sneh paid agency every Commission employs that lahors 
for the good of the army. 

Now two things may be here observed: first, that no Agency but 
that of the Sanitary Commission even pretends to do anything in the 
various departments named, with the exception of the last; so that if, 
in order to avoid paid agencies, the public should desert the Sanitary 
Commission, it would necessitate the utter abandoning of work as neces- 
sary and important as that of hospital supplies ; and secondly, that the 
respects in which it has already been proved that a paid agency is indis- 
pensable, and is actually used by all Commissions, are so numerous that 
very little is left about which to dispute. These cover perhaps three- 
fourths of the expense incurred by the Sanitary Commission in the 
remuneration of those whom it employs. 

But that no evasion may seem to be practised, the case will be still 
further examined with reference to the small part of the work which 
relates to the final distribution of suppHes to the soldiers. It will 
naturally be asked. Whether good, benevolent men, could not be secured 
to act gratuitously for brief periods of a month or six weeks, in convey- 
ing the supplies from the storehouses to the hospitals, and in making 
distribution among sick and wounded? If laymen cannot lea\e their 
business, can not the pastors of churches be sent on short visits to the 
army for this purpose ? It may be answered, that if the Sanitary Com- 
mission were to do this, the agency could hardly be called gratuitous; for 
the churches would still support the pastors and their families by the 
continuance of their salaries, and would also supply the vacant pulpits 
at considerable cost, while the Commission would pay the traveling 
expenses and the board in the army. Instead of being properly a gxa- 
tuitous operation, it would be borrowing and supporting a paid agency at 
not a small incidental cxpensa. In avery department of werk somebody 



6 ♦. 

must support tlie workmen. Tt were better to add, if necessary a IW 
dollars more, call it a compensated labor, and secure the obvious advan- 
tages of the latter plan. These advantages may he summed up in per- 
manence, efficiency and economy. 

1. A paid agency toill he perinniuat. All who need the labor of 
others value permanence of arrangement. No housewife likes to change 
her cook or chambermaid every month. No charitable asylum for or- 
phans or the blind, for the insane or for the deaf and dumb, would 
choose a gratuitous monthly service from friends rather than a paid per- 
manent service. Tf a business man finds a good clerk, he wants to keep 
him. Suppose, now, a company of volunteer agents visit the army, and 
two or three of them prove to be admirably qualified for the work, 
would it not lie good policy to secure their services permanently by offer- 
ing such a salarj' as would enaljlc them to remain 'i Could money be 
better expended V Why send ihem away to let inferior men come in 
their place, even if the latter will serve for nothing? 

2. A paid agency is the most efficient. Under the idea of etRciency 
we may include as elements, selection, order, responsibility and experi- 
ence. To work to the best advantage in e.xtended operations, selected 
men must work under strict discipline and for long periods. Those to 
be employed must be carefully chosen, not merely for general good 
character, nor even for special piety and usefulness in other fields, but 
for adaptation to the particular work. But if the Sanitary Commission 
were to depend upon volunteer agency, they could not use the same par- 
ticularit}'^ of selection as at present. Ten times as many agents would 
be needed during the year, and these must often be hastily accepted 
as they might offer, espcciall}^ as the temptation would >)e strong to 
avoid giving offence by their rejection, in case they were persons of intlu 
ence in the community. Consequently with the good men would be 
sent many utterly unqualified for the work. The present plan gives op- 
portunitj^ for careful selection in the case of every individual, and thus 
secures an efficient corps of laborers from the outset. In the field, 
moreover, each laborer must be rigidly held to his proper place and the 
prescribed method, and be made responsible for his portion of the work. 
This can be very partially done under a gratuitous, volunteer system, in 
which men come of their own accord, stay for a brief term, have their 
curio.sity to gratifj^ work for nothing, and feel correspondingly indepen- 
dent. It is useless here to say that good men. Christians and clergymen 
at that, will be free from irregularity and insubordination. Human na- 
ture is human nature even in such worthy representatives, and agents 
will generally take improper liberty, and feel a degree of irresponsi- 
bility, who are here to-day and gone to-morrow, and whose labors are a 
gratuity. The vast extent and great importance of the operations of the 
Sanitary Commission, involving the distribution of supplies to the value 
of millions of dollars, require, on simple business principles, that it should 
have agents perfectly under its control, and of whom it stands in no fear. 
It is essential, on the one hand, that the agents be dependent upon it for 



their employment and support, and subject continually to orders of a 
superior authority, which they must obey ; and, on the other hand, that 
the Commission be independent of their good will, and not necessitated 
to use them for suhsequent appeals to the people. It must not he in 
bondage to gratuitous laborers, nor under temptation from them. 

And then the necessity of long and varied experience to efficient la- 
bor need scarcely be argued with an intelligent public. An experienced 
man can not only do twice the work of a novice in the same time, but 
can do it twice as well. He knows where to go, what to do, how to do 
it, whom to see. lie learns the ])eculiarities of men with whom he has 
to deal. He becomes familiar with plans, methods, and localities. He 
acquires tact as well as knowledge. He is worth twice as nmcb the 
second month as he was the first, and as much more still the third. 
Would it be wisdom, then, for the Sanitary Commission to abandon a 
plan which gives them the advantage of disciplined, responsible, and 
experienced agents, and to adopt one which would make them dependent 
upon a succession of raw, undisciplined, iri'esponsible and inexperienced 
hands, coming fresh from the people every month or six weeks? Let 
common sense return the answer. 

3. A paid agency u the most ecoaotiiical. This affirmation is made 
advisedly, as the result of observation and experience, and thoughtful 
men will see nothing strange in it. It would not surprise a merchant 
to tell him that paid clerks would be more economical than the volunteer, 
gratuitous and inexperienced friends who might offer to assist him, or 
even that well-paid clerks were more economical than those poorly paid. 
To judge of economy in a particular case, we must consider more than 
the money laid out in expenses. The true test is the relation of expense 
to results. A high rent is sometimes cheaper than a low rent, provided 
the locality be superior. Housekeepers understand that a cook at ten 
dollars a month might cost a family less than another at five, or even at 
nothing. Indeed, not a few assistants in every line of business are dear 
at nothing. 

The economy of sanitary operations depends on the amount they 
cost the public and tiie govermnent as well as the ti'easuiy of the Com- 
mission, the pi'oportion the expenses bear to the business done, and the 
saving as well as the disbursement attending the plan adopted. If the 
Sanitary Commission should send a new set of clerical distributing 
agents into the field every month or six weeks, the incidental expense 
to the churches of supplying the pulpits left vacant, to the railroads and 
the government of furnishing transportation, and to the Commission of 
caring for them in food and lodging, would vary but little from what 
would be required to keep paid agents at work continuously. The rela- 
tions of permanent rather than transient agents to the Government may 
seem of small consequence, but Gen. Sherman thought otherwise, and 
protested eai-ncstly against the constant moving of delegates and agents 
over the roads, saying that its cost and annoyance to the Government 
were not to be tolerated. There was not abiUty to transport soldicr.s 



ancl"hiunitions of war rapidly enough to meet the demands of the service, 
and every man of these agents occupied the room of a soldier, or his 
weight of powder and shell. He was finally compelled to exclude them 
entirely from the trains. 

Bat the comparative economy of paid over unpaid agents is to be es- 
timated chiefly from the use of the stores entrusted to them. The expe- 
rience of all charitable societies confirms the assertion, that nothing re- 
(juires more tact, discernment and caution, to avoid waste, than the 
distribution of benefactions to the needy. Between the covetousness of 
the recipient and the sympathetic eagerness of the benefactor, there will 
always be unwise profusion till long experience creates wariness and 
caution. More will be given to the really needy than their wants require, 
while dishonest applicants will carry off what should be reserved for 
cases of genuine distress. The array increases rather than diminishes 
this risk. Tlie tricks and cunning of a veteran campaigner, and his 
ability to tell a story adapted to the circumstances, have made the ex- 
pression proverbial, "to come the old so'ger" over a person. Hence, if 
the Sanitary Commission should follow the advice of some, and substitute 
transient, volunteer, unpaid agents or delegates, the result would be im- 
mense waste of supplies, not through dishonest3'' but unwisdom. Ft 
would never have anj' but inexperienced hands. By the time a delegate 
had acquired a little skill, bis brief term of service would expire, and he 
would give place to a raw laborer. But under the present pl.an the same 
agent continues for months at the same work and often at the same post, 
and consequently gains such experience as enables him to detect impos- 
ture or lun-easonableness in other?', and to restrain undue sympathy and 
eagerness in himself. And here we are to retnember how much more 
ready men are to be lavish with a public fund than with their own pri- 
vate charities, and how this temptation would increase, if they volunteered 
their services, and estimated the good done and the impression of their 
subsequent report by the amount of supplies distributed. 

Tn view of those obvious considerations, familiar to all who manage 
public charities, is it unreasonable to a.^sert, that a permanent and paid 
agency would make ninet}'' dollars go as far as a transient, volunteer 
agency would a hundred V If so, then the Sanitary Commission save by 
their present plan, in the hospital supply department alone, three times as 
much as the entire pxpens(;s of all the departments. It will thus be seen 
that the seeming cost of a paid agency in the work of distribution is repaid 
many times over. And what we arrive at by fair reasoning from the known 
facts of human nature and ofvOther benevolent operations, is coiroborated 
by observation and experience in the Sanitary Commission work. The 
testimony often comes back from the field that the system saves more 
than it costs. After watching the experiments of ourselves and others 
with special care, we are assured that the system of permanent, compen- 
sated agency is not only the best as regards efficiency and economy, but 
is in truth the only system on which so varied and e.xtensive operations 
can be carric<l on. 



X 



